Sony‘s Xperia line up is famous for its dust and water resistant properties. Sony has announced yet another waterproof and dust resistant handset – the Xperia M2 Aqua that has the highest rating for water resistance, the IP65/IP68 certification. In fact, it is the highest rating seen on any smartphone till date.

IP68 certification means the Xperia M2 Aqua smartphone is completely dust proof and is not affected even if it is submerged in water at a depth of more than 1m and that too indefinitely. The phone can even survive up to 3m depth. Surprisingly, a Sony Xperia Z2 with IP58 certification recently survived for over a month in the salty water of the ocean at 10m below the surface. Sony obviously has a great water resistance technology.

Calum MacDougall, Director of Xperia Marketing at Sony Mobile says,”Xperia M2 Aqua is a significant milestone in our product portfolio as we bring yet another of our signature technologies to a new category of smartphones”.

Specs-wise, the Xperia M2 Aqua is a mid-range smartphone similar to the original Xperia M2. It features a 4.8-inch qHD IPS display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex A7 processor and Adreno 305 GPU for graphics support. Memory options include 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage with a microSD card slot for expanding the internal memory and a 2,300mAh battery.

In the camera department, the Xperia M2 Aqua has an 8MP (1080p) rear camera with Exmor RS sensor capable of recording full HD videos, SteadyShot and HDR. The device allows for live streaming to Facebook. There is a 1.1MP front-facing camera for taking selfies. Connectivity options include 3G, 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth and a microUSB port. The device runs on the latest Android 4.4 KitKat.

At present, the Sony Xperia M2 Aqua would be available in single-SIM version only. The original Xperia M2 costs around $240 and the M2 Aqua is expected to cost a little more than that. The device will be available in White and Black color options this Autumn in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.